In a case that’s giving new meaning to the phrase “eating your savings,” doctors in India made a shocking discovery when treating a patient with what seemed like routine stomach pain. Spoiler alert: it was anything but routine.
When Your “Food Poisoning” Turns Out To Be A Metal Collection
At first, the medical team at Sanjay Gandhi Hospital thought they were dealing with a standard case of food poisoning when a 35-year-old man named Maksud Khan came in complaining of abdominal pain.
But this seemingly ordinary medical visit was about to turn into something straight out of a medical mystery show.
The Truth Was More Metal Than Anyone Expected
During what should have been a routine endoscopy (you know, that fun procedure where doctors use a tiny camera to peek inside your digestive tract), the medical team discovered something that probably had them doing a double-take.
Inside Khan’s stomach wasn’t just undigested food — it was an entire hardware store’s inventory.
Here’s The Absolutely Wild Inventory They Found:
- 263 coins (talk about saving money in the wrong place)
- 100 nails (definitely not the kind of iron supplement doctors recommend)
- Dozens of shaving blades
- Multiple shards of glass
- A 6-inch piece of rusted iron shackle (because apparently, regular silverware wasn’t enough)
The Grand Total? A whopping 15 pounds (7 kilograms) of metal and other objects. That’s about the weight of a medium-sized bowling ball, just sitting there in someone’s stomach.
“We were shocked to discover that [there were] coins, nails and nut-bolts in his stomach,” said Dr. Priyank Sharma, who treated Khan at the hospital in Madhya Pradesh.
And honestly, who wouldn’t be shocked? In their entire careers, the medical team had never encountered anything quite like this.
A Growing Pattern Of Similar Cases
Surprisingly, Khan’s case isn’t entirely unique. Just a month before this incident, doctors in France treated a patient who had swallowed more than 100 pieces of metal, including coins and nails.
That patient was diagnosed with psychosis, a condition that can cause a person to lose touch with reality.
And in 2016, another case in India involved a 42-year-old man who had consumed 40 knives.
The patient claimed he felt “addicted” to eating the knives, suggesting a possible case of pica — an eating disorder where people compulsively eat non-food items for at least a month.
In Khan’s case, mental health appears to have played a significant role.
He hadn’t told any of his friends or family about his unusual eating habits, highlighting the often-hidden nature of mental health struggles.
Editor’s Note: This article was based on reporting from The Independent and various medical case reports.